You know what's really cool? Getting a bunch of people who love Star Trek together to watch some good old The Next Generation. You know what's even cooler? Getting those people to watch it on the big screen in a movie theater. Guess who got to do that? Me! Thanks to IGN, I was able to go watch Star Trek: The Next Generation in all of it's glory up on the big screen. So, what was it like to see Picard, Riker and the rest of gang up on the big screen? Check it out!

Making of Best of Both Worlds

The theater filled up with anxious Star Trek fans that were eagerly anticipating the event. We were then treated to a trailer for the upcoming show we were about to see. The crowd, amazed at what they saw, cheered as the trailer came on. The trailer included the behind-the-scenes look at how Best of Both World's was shot and then concluded with the episode's trailer along with some bloopers. We were then taken into the behind the scenes feature. Many of the show's cast talked about what it was like to film and act the scenes. Some of the stars included: Patrick Stewart, Jonathan Frakes, Seth MacFarlane (who worked as a side writer, uncredited it seems), Elizabeth Dennehy and a few others.

What took my breathe away however, were some of the cast and crew who showed off how they filmed some of the cool scenes in the episode, especially when the Borg mothership exploded. The amazing thing they did in the look was depict frame by frame and how they filtered all of the CG and other special effects that made the episode come alive. The crew also went over initial passed with different camera filters from a matte filter, a computer generated filter and then the final filter. Once you see all of these filters come together, it's a real special tweet.

Going back to the cast. There were some really funny moments with Dennehy and Frakes. Especially since both of their characters were the main focus for this particular episode. Dennehy talks about this role being her first time doing a role on television with this big of an audience. Dennehy — a classically trained actress said she was nervous and was uncomfortable on the first day of her rehearsals. She goes to state that she would lose focus and would be overwhelmed with the fast pace nature of how the show was filmed and rehearsed. If you watch the episode, it would see like she was confident and knew what she was doing. Dennehy goes on to say that it did get better and better as time went on.

The Borg parts were interesting. The crew said that they were having a love affair with a someone with a bald head to fill the role of one of the Borg. Which was why Stewart was perfect for the part. Using him as the leader of the Borg, also known as Loctous of Borg, was an genius move. This would give the Borg all of the knowledge of the Federation, which made them deadly.

It was a really cool experience to see how the episode was made and really cool from a techie's side of things. Now we move on to the two-part epside: The Best of Both Worlds

The Best of Both Worlds

The Best of Both Worlds was a turning point for Star Trek: The Next Generation. It solidified that it had an amazing array of characters who could do any possible role when they needed them too. It marks the first time Picard was not able to captain his own ship and was presumed dead. It also marked the first time that Riker had captain status on the Enterprise. I'm sure a lot of you have seen this episode by now, so I won't bore you with the details of the episode. Instead, I'm going to give you a little bit of my thoughts on the episode.

Being someone who hasn't seen Star Trek: The Next Generation since his childhood, I was very fuzzy coming into the theaters to watch it. I remember Riker being a badass and Picard being the man you looked up too. In this episode, it was like my childhood appeared just in front of me again. I was like a kid in a candy store. I was a huge fan or Riker and didn't really remember the attachment of himself to Shelby, but you could see the animosity they had for each other in the beginning, and what I thought, was going to be a bigger future together for both of them. Turns out that Riker married the beautiful Dr. Troi, but that's a different story for another time. I really liked the chemistry that Riker and Shelby brought to the episode. Each one trying to out do one another was really cool. When Riker became Captain, their animosity stopped and they were on the same team. This is when their relationship matured, which was really cool to see.

Seeing Picard as the bad guy was a really cool experience too. The range Stewart has is quite amazing. As Loctous of Borg, Stewart was used by the Borg as their guide to the Federation. The main objective was toassimilate the people of Earth. I always find it funny that the Borg wanted a peaceful existence of people, but went in a more violent way to do so. Maybe it was because the Federation put a fight against them. But, they're look was certainly cool, I probably would have went with the Borg...maybe. Picard as the now stoic member of the Borg was their figurehead. Their means to an end to talk with the Federation for the unconditional surrender. In the end — of course the victors would be the Federation, because they are the good guys after all.

This is the episode that will most likely make me watch Star Trek: The Next Generation again. Like I said, I was a big fan of it when I was a kid (we're talking 10 - 12 years old here) and I'm still in love with Marina Sirtis, the lovely woman who played Deanna Troi. Of course, the real star of the show here is Patrick Stewart, who will always been the head of class in terms of acting and general!

After the airing of the episode, we were treated to some bloopers and a trailer for the the next season of Star Trek: The Next Generation that will be out on Blu-Ray and DVD. The next season will be season number 4. All in all, I thought it was a really cool event. I wish there was a little bit more too it. Just some basic slides that told you what was going to happen. It didn't detract from the event, but a little fanfare would have been cool. But, hey, you get to see The Next Generation in theaters, what more could you want?

Thabass is an aspiring community manager for online video game communities. He current serves as an IGN All-Star! Thabass is also well-versed in the video game business with over three years of being in and following the industry. He can be reached on Twitter @Thabass or can be followed on My IGN.

It's been my life long goal...

You know, I have always longed to get into the video game industry. So much - that I went to school to become a video game designer. However, somewhere along the way, I fell in love with writing. The human way of connecting to another human being by sound or written word is something that has always intrigued me. Lately, there has been a lot of talk about game journalism here on IGN and it's something that I have been pondering for well over five glorious years now. But, I wasn't quite sure I wanted to be a journalist until the end of my days in college.

Back when I was in college, I had a lot of friends who wanted to be a 3D modeler or a programmer, but me, I was always and will always be the writer. Trying to wrap something complicated around a reader's head and then blowing their mind with a finale of stylistic writing the reader can come to honor and respect. That's a goal I have always had in my life. When I started doing freelance work for other websites (including IGN), that is when I really wanted to branch out and start thinking in terms of journalism and reporting. I love to talk about all sorts of things. Anything from sports, to the weather, to video games to music. Everything interests me when and when I get to write about it, it shows up brightest when I am writing about a certain subject. Video games is my calling, it always has been and it always will be I'd wager. What better job to have in my life than to write about and play video games?

Video Games is more than an art for me...it's life.

So, I take this blog and I am making a mark here today. I want to be an editor for IGN. I think I can safely say now after a few weeks of thinking this through that I know this is something I want. There is no better feeling than having to see your thoughts on a website and people commenting on what you wrote. It's almost like a high that I get. It's something that keeps me motivated and keeps me on my toes. I don't know how my chances are, but I hope, if IGN is reading this, they will take a look at me someday.